The Hunt Is On

Easter this year was a lot different than Easter '09 for the Maios. Last year our little bouncing baby was still nursing and happy as a clam to lay in mama's arms during church. This year...well, she behaved as well as we could hope for a busy toddler. Although that included identifying the middle-aged woman in front of us as "grandma!", which I don't think went over too well with said woman, demanding "cereals" during a quiet moment, practicing her balance beam skills on the kneeler, and loudly declaring a statue of Jesus to be "Santa!".

She did love her dress, tights, and shiny shoes though.

Hope you like this look, as she'll be sporting it again at a wedding we're attending next weekend.


Her cheeky response to me asking to "show mama your dress".

After we got home we switched into more typical Sunday-wear and headed over to grandma and grandpa Maio's for brunch. The spread was delish and the Easter Bunny managed to hit both our house and the grandparent's house. Weird how that happens. Little Miss cleaned up with tons of crayons, a new coloring book, water socks for the cottage, some new blocks and a truck, sidewalk chalk, a bouncy-ball, and finger paint (which the Bunny is planning to confiscate until we can strip down to a diaper this summer). Plus of course some chocolate bunnies. We left midday to get her home in time for her nap, and after she woke up we headed outside to hunt for eggs. The weather was warm and it took about one egg for her to figure out how this hunt thing worked. The best part was her announcing the color of each egg at the top of her lungs.

Pink!


Gween!


Showing us her loot


Wowie is on the scent


Shaking it and preparing for the feast

Each egg had a few M&Ms in it and once she figured that out it was game-on for stuffing them in her mouth ASAP. The unforeseen kicker is that the candies made her mouth water uncontrollably, so there were waterfalls of pastel colored drool just cascading out of her mouth, over her chin, and on to her clothes. I do have a photo of this, but her eyes are shut and she looks like maybe she has rabies. So I will choose not to post it, but instead keep it in my arsenal of blackmail goodies.

It's been a week since the hunt and she's still loving playing with the plastic eggs. We take one in the car, we take a few in the tub, and we have a grand old time matching the colors of the tops and bottoms. Who knew $0.99 plastic would have such longevity?

So this week we're going to have a visit from grandma Martin and then head to Chicago for a wedding on Saturday. Lots more to come for our busy bunny!